Bringing Wellness Full Circle

I know, some of us think that our metabolism is slower than molasses, and we tell ourselves that that is why we carry a bit (or a lot) of extra weight. While it may be true that some people’s metabolism is genetically very slow, the bottom line is still that most of our extra weight on the hips is due to bad eating and not enough movement! So we want to keep (or better) our figure, we better learn to eat better and move more; every little bit helps.

Here are the four main components that will help your body be a better fat-burning machine:

High Intensity Exercise: When you exercise above 75 % of your maximum heart rate (that’s when you can hardly talk while you work out), you probably will cause your metabolism to be enhanced after exercise and you wind up burning extra calories for another 2 to 4 hours. This works both for aerobic exercise and weight training. The longer you train at a high intensity, the more calories you burn during and after the work out

Normalizing your pH: When your pH gets into the normal ranges, your body will automatically begin to release the extra fat it holds on to in order to neutralize the extra acid. So keep on eating up these spinach salads and putting lime/lemon juice on everything

Fidgeting: Incidental movement in day-to-day activities seems to be key to burning more energy and giving you a more efficient metabolism. It’s no surprise that people who worry, twitch and pace tend to be thin. This is called NEAT, or “non-exercise activity thermogenesis.” Thermogenesis is the term for energy burning. When your metabolism is running “normally” it seems that NEAT increases when you overeat and decreases when you undereat. This process has evolved over the history of human evolution to maintain body balance. Think of it in similar terms to how very-low-calorie diets are known to slow your metabolism down. NEAT works in the same way: the more you move, the more the body assumes you have excess energy to work off. The less you move, the more the body assumes you don’t, and so it slows down. You can promote this NEAT process by never missing an opportunity to move when you have an option. Walk to the store, get off the couch often (get up to change the channel), do some gardening, walk the dog. . .you get the picture. Do small things often, that’s the key.

Muscle building: Muscle has a higher energy requirement than fat, so the more muscle and less fat your body is composed of, the higher your metabolism will be. The exercise required to build that extra muscle at the expense of fat is another important process in weight management. So, grab those weights, people!